EXPLORING THE NARRATIVE

ESSAY BY BOB CHASE

Ihave long been an admirer of Eric Fischl’s paintings. But as an art dealer, I have also been a great admirer of how, over a 30-year period, Eric has stayed so relevant within the contemporary conversation. Despite an age where clever ideas and shiny objects dominate the new contemporary art landscape, Eric’s figurative paintings continue to cut through. Major museum exhibitions are being organized for his work, international dealers are mounting shows, and important collectors are still vying for paintings. I found this to be an incredible accolade for Eric and his more traditional approach to art making and it was one of the aspects that intrigued me most when we first met in the summer of 2011. It was a late August afternoon when I first made my way up the long flight of stairs to Eric’s Soho studio. He greeted me warmly and immediately disarmed me with his grounded sensibility and quick wit, a defining trait that I would find ingratiates him with everyone he meets.

UNTITLED DIPTYCH 2013

Unique mixed-media composition: hand-painting with digital pigment prints on acetate in poured resin 60 x 80 inches

We sat and talked midst a myriad of Fischl’s lush oil paintings in various stages of completion, as well watercolors revealing figures turning and bending in an ethereal and translucent starkness. To my great surprise there was also a collection of sculpture scattered throughout the studio that felt as if Giacometti had secretly reworked the surfaces of Michelangelo’s robust figures, and then twisted and unbalanced them in off-kilter expressions.

I was there to not only learn more about Eric and his practice, but also to speak with him about a grand vision he had for bringing important contemporary art to underserved communities around the country. The project was called “America Now and Here.” It was intended as the creative community’s response to American life in our Post-9/11 world and was an opportunity for artists to impact the narrative that, for so many years, had been hijacked by the media and politicians. It was proposed to be delivered via trucks caravanning into rural locales where they would unpack and form a contemporary “art circus” (for lack of a better description) in which all could participate. The idea was democratic in its approach and fundamentally American in its roots, but layered with access to content that would spark new conversations. It was an artistic vision on the grandest scale and, needless to say, I was all in.

For Eric, the bridge from abstraction to figuration came in the form of figures drawn on clear acetates. He would create a cast of characters on various sheets of acetates or vellum, then create a livable environment for them, finally shuffling the figures around until he landed on a composition that sparked a narrative… This process of collaging became the backbone to his entire artistic practice.

However, as our conversation unfolded, my eyes were locked just beyond Eric’s right shoulder on one of the most compelling bronze works I had ever seen. It was a maquette, but its power was monumental. Its expression was as grand as the conversation we were having about “America Now and Here,” but its impact felt intimate in a way hadn’t experienced before. The piece was titled Tumbling Woman and embodied everything we had been discussing. The work depicted a female rolling headlong on her shoulders like a tumbleweed blowing across the American West, with her arm outstretched and her hand open. “She is us, we are all tumbling along here.” Eric explained of our post 9/11 experience, “but my hope is that someone will reach out to hold her hand and help stop this motion.” The duality of such a work was the moment I began to fully understand Eric Fischl.

Cast Glass

As Adam Adelson has conveyed so eloquently in his accompanying essay, Eric Fischl is about those intimate moments of being human. He is about those thin slices of time, wherein a fleeting tenth of a second we might catch a glimpse of who one truly is and how they hold themselves against the world. We see both the inner dialog one has with themselves and how that connects them to others, or, as the case may be in many Fischl works, how this disconnects them from the external world. Taken at a macro level, this idea can be applied broadly to such topics as nationalism, religion, and Fischl’s hallmark iconography surrounding the underbelly of suburban American life. We also find it deeply rooted in his beach paintings where the taboo of nudity rubs up against the seemingly benign ideal of family leisure as figures make their way across the beaches of St. Barts, St. Tropez or The Hamptons. Fischl’s ability to bring you into life’s most intimate moments, yet thrust you onto a grander stage is, in my opinion, one of the key aspects to his continued longevity.

UNTITLED (ARCHING WOMAN) 2012 Cast glass 24 1/2 x 9 x 11 inches 4/10

My collaboration with Eric Fischl began by exploring new mediums and techniques not previously available to artists, which would allow him to reimagine his collage process while utilizing a repertoire of new and old imagery.

Interestingly, these ideas are far afield from Fischl’s early beginnings as an abstract painter. He spent years searching for his artistic voice after leaving CalArts alongside his classmates Ross Bleckner, David Salle, and Gary Lang. Abstraction could not hold Fischl’s appetite for something more connective and he began exploring figuration, which, at the time, held no real ground within contemporary art. Artists were moving as quickly as they could toward deconstruction, while Eric turned the other way. For Eric, the bridge from abstraction to figuration came in the form of figures drawn on clear acetates. Eric would create a cast of characters on various sheets of acetates or vellum, then create a livable environment for them, finally shuffling the figures around until he landed on a composition that sparked a narrative. He was hooked and, over the last 30 years, this process of collaging became the backbone to his entire artistic practice.

As an art dealer, I love process. So, as Eric and I became closer we had many discussions about his unique approach. I could feel how critical this process was to his output and how passionate he was about its pursuit. My role with artists has always been to identify their areas of passion and provide opportunities for them to explore these areas more fully. Additionally, it is my responsibility to provide them access to new materials and mediums that allow them to push their passion in new directions.

My collaboration with Eric Fischl began by exploring new mediums and techniques not previously available to artists, which would allow him to reimagine his collage process while utilizing a repertoire of new and old imagery. Printmaking techniques had advanced so much that it was now possible to print vibrant imagery on clear acetates. Digital technology had also opened up the possibility of isolating figures from past work and collaging them together with new characters painted at that very moment in the studio. This convergence of digital capabilities and traditional “analog” art-making revealed a back-to-the-future moment that unlocked an entirely new body of work for the artist, first in Mylar collages assembled within layers of cast resin, and later in layered pinned Mylar collages.

Other artistic possibilities opened up alongside these works, such as advancements in cast glass and clear acrylic, which allowed for solid figures to be poured in complex configurations with flawless and transparent materials. Eric saw the way this could connect his sculptural figures to the translucent images from his watercolor paintings and, suddenly, a new dialog was formed between two and three dimensions.

This recent flurry of artistic exploration has also presented an unintended consequence for those collectors interested in acquiring Fischl’s work but who were not in the market for the mid-six-to-seven figure prices of his paintings. Suddenly, the clock had been turned back and significant work by Eric Fischl could be acquired for prices not seen since his early rise to fame in the late ’70s and early ’80s. It has been an exciting opportunity for those lucky enough to participate, and a personally gratifying moment to simultaneously unlock this creativity for the artist and this value for his collectors.

Eric Fischl continues to cut against the grain of the contemporary world, but ironically he has embraced some of today’s most advanced art-making techniques to take figuration to new levels of artistic expression. My hope is that all who view this new body of work connect with it on the most intimate level, find themselves within it, and gain a further understanding of who we are both individually and within the grander vision of the world.

Bob Chase President and owner Hexton Gallery